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Islam and Sectarianism ( 22 Aug 2023, NewAgeIslam.Com)

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Human Rights Watch Accuses Saudi Arabia of Massacre of Hundreds of Ethiopian Refugees Trying to Cross Border from The War-Torn Country

By New Age Islam Staff Writer

22 August 2023

1.    Eye witnesses said 90 people were killed by Saudi security forces.

2.    Ethiopian people are hit by the armed conflict in the country.

1.    3.Saudi forces have been killing asylum seekers in remote border areas.

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Ethiopian migrants reach Yemen in 2019. (Nariman El-Mofty/AP)

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The international human rights organisation Human Rights Watch has released its reports on Monday on the plight of Ethiopian refugees and asylum seekers. In its report, it has accused Saudi Arabia of gross human rights violations as the report says that the Saudi security forces have massacred Ethiopian refugees and asylum seekers trying to cross into Saudi Arabia. According to the report, Saudi Arabia has killed hundreds of the refugees in the last one and a half year. The 73-page report released on Monday in New York says that the security forces of Saudi Arabia targeted refugees with sophisticated weapons. Human Rights researcher and activist Nadia Herdman says that the security authorities of Saudi Arabia have been killing Ethiopian refugees and asylum seekers in remote border areas and this was being carried out without the knowledge of the world. She further said that the authorities posted on the borders are fully aware that those they have been killing are unarmed civilians. Saudi government has not reacted to the report yet.

According to the Human Rights Watch, many people are compelled to leave their country due to adverse conditions, war or insurgency and seek refuge in another country. According to the Associated Press, the Human Rights Watch had released its statistics in 2022 which said that about 7.5 lakh refugees were living in Saudi Arabia. Out of them, about 4.5 lakh refugees had entered the kingdom without legal documents. The HRW said that the immigrants try to enter Saudi Arabia through Yemen where they enter through the Gulf of Eden.

The current report of the HRW is based on the interviews of 42 people including immigrants from Ethiopia. These immigrants had tried to enter Saudi Arabia in 2022. 350 videos and photos from social media and other sources were used to prepare the report. Apart from it, satellite images were also used to identify border areas. A refugee told HRW that a group of 170 people was targeted by the Saudi forces when they tried to cross the border. 90 of them died and he saw people taking the dead bodies away. He said that he saw dead bodies scattered all over.

It should be noted that an armed conflict has been going on between the Ethiopian government headed by Abiy Ahmad and the separatists of the northern region Tigray since November 2020. The Tigrayan armed group has been demanding self-determination for Somali origin people. In September 2020, they held elections in Tigray in defiance of the government and declared sweeping victory for them. But the Abiy Ahmad government called the elections invalid. Both the sides have declared each other illegitimate. In November, the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) attacked the military base in Sero. In response, the Abiy Ahmad government started military offensive against TPLF.As a result, people were killed and millions of people have been internally displaced. Both the sides have accused each other of human rights violations.

According to a report, in 2021, the United States characterized the conflict as ethnic cleansing against Tigrayans, and reports have documented the prevalence of mass atrocities. In March 2021, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights announced a joint probe with the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to investigate alleged abuses and rights violations in Tigray, although the impartiality and accuracy of the report [PDF] were called into question following its presentation at the United Nations. After the events of the Axum Massacre came to light in February 2021, the UN admitted that its human rights investigators were not authorized to visit Axum while working with the EHRC. The joint report presents evidence that the ENDF, Tigrayan militant groups, and other militias involved in the conflict have all committed various human rights violations. Abuses listed in the report include the use of rape as a weapon of war, violence against children, and ethnically targeted killings. A UN Security Council proposal to condemn the parties to the conflict in early 2021 was quickly scrapped due to push back from India, Russia, and China. Foreign news sources have accused the ENDF, Eritrean troops, and Tigrayan and other regional militias of perpetrating further massacres and mass death events (often bombings) since then.

Tigrayan forces retook the regional capital of Mekelle from the ENDF in June 2021. A month later, Addis Ababa announced the results of a national parliamentary election­—which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won in a landslide. The TPLF boycotted what was supposed to be the country’s first free and fair election, and opposition leadership in parliament accused the Abiy government of banning poll observers in some states. Later, in the summer of 2021, Abiy called on all capable citizens to join the war against Tigrayan forces as the conflict began to spill over into the Afar and Amhara regions, growing closer to Addis Ababa. In November 2021, Tigrayan troops and allied Oromo militants marched within eighty-five miles of the capital but were forced back north by ENDF forces backed by Emirati, Turkish, and Iranian drones purchased by the government. Human Rights Watch later reported that Tigrayan troops killed dozens of civilians while occupying towns in the Amhara region as they made their way south that fall.

Compounding Ethiopia’s internal struggles, a border clash with Sudan has been at risk of escalation since 2020, when Sudan used the chaos of the Mekelle Offensive to reignite a territorial dispute over a piece of fertile land adjacent to Tigray. That dispute turned deadly in 2021 and led to the dual militarization of part of the border.

50,000 civilians have been killed in the crossfire so far and 50,000 have fled the Tigrayan region. They have taken shelter in Sudan and other neighbouring countries. In Sudan, refugee camps have been set up for them.

3.1 million people have been internally displaced as of May 2023 and 9,30,000 people have taken refuge in South Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia. 7 million people are in need of assistance as the health, nutrition, sanitation and water supply systems have collapsed.

In these circumstances, the approach of Saudi Arabia to the refugee problem is disappointing. The human rights track record of Saudi Arabia is already very poor as it cracks down on human rights activists and journalists who criticise the policies of MBS. Salman has also been accused of ordering the killing of journalist Khashoggi though he hss denied his involvement in his murder. Saudi Arabi, the self- styled guardian of Islamic community has shown insensitivity to the refugees of Ethiopia and Yemen. Instead of providing food, shelter and other civic amenities to them, it has been killing hapless, innocent refugees, including children and women. The world should hold Saudi Arabia accountable for its inhuman and un-Islamic treatment of refugees.

 

URL:    https://newageislam.com/islam-sectarianism/human-rights-watch-saudi-arabia-massacre-ethiopian-refugees/d/130500


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